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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;ancientnut, post: 2355163, member: 73212&quot;]Greek mythology tells of the extensive travels of Heracles in Sicily and of his R&amp;R:</p><p><br /></p><p>“While passing along the coast of the island…the Nymphs caused warm baths to gush forth so that he might refresh himself after the toil sustained in journeying. There are two of these, called respectively Himeraea and Egestaea, each of them having its name from the place where the baths are.” (Diodorus Siculus 4.23.1)</p><p><br /></p><p>A new acquisition is from the location of one of those baths.</p><p><br /></p><p>After the destruction of Himera, on the North coast of Sicily, by the Carthaginians in 408 BC, the refugees were encouraged to settle in another coastal area about 8 miles to the West of the old city. It became known as Thermai Himerensis, “the hot springs of Himera”. The modern city is known as Termini Imerese:</p><p><br /></p><p><img src="http://www.madoniepress.it/public/news/176201593051c.jpg" class="bbCodeImage wysiwygImage" alt="" unselectable="on" /></p><p><br /></p><p><img src="http://www.acsearch.info/media/images/archive/51/1320/1118643.m.jpg" class="bbCodeImage wysiwygImage" alt="" unselectable="on" /> </p><p><br /></p><p>Thermai Himerensis, Sicily, AR tetradrachm, c 370-350 BC, 27mm, 17.17 g 11h. OBV: Quadriga galloping to left, driven by a female charioteer who leans forward, with a kentron in her right hand and the reins in her left; above left, Nike flying right to crown the driver; [in exergue, altar] / REV: Female head (Arethusa? Tanit? Demeter?) to left, wearing grain wreath, triple pendant earring and necklace; around, four dolphins swimming right; behind head, prow. Jenkins, Punic 72, 4 (same dies); HGC 2 1611 (R2, this coin); SNG Lloyd 1039 (same dies).</p><p><br /></p><p>In my quest for silver staters of Magna Graecia, I have acquired nice examples of Tarentum (4), Laos, Metapontum, Poseidonia, Thurium, Velia, Katane, Messana (2), Segesta, Selinus, and Syracuse. Coins of Thermai Himerensis were previously included with Siculo-Punic issues since it was, except for brief periods, under Carthaginian rule. This despite the fact that none of them have Punic legends. Sear, Hoover, and other references now list them under the city. However, the tetradrachms of this city are so rare they were not on my list.</p><p><br /></p><p>SNG ANS has only two tetradrachms of Thermai Himerensis and none of this type. In his seminal work, Coins of Punic Sicily, 1971, G.K. Jenkins knew of only four examples, all from these same dies. There are no tetradrachms of the city listed in Sear, Greek Coins and Their Values. Hoover, Volume 2, 1611 lists the type as R2 (fewer than 25 known) and THIS COIN IS HIS PLATE COIN! acsearch.info includes only one other example, which appears in four different auctions. It exhibits more die wear and corrosion on the obverse and less detail on the reverse than the subject coin:</p><p><br /></p><p><img src="http://www.acsearch.info/media/images/archive/93/2347/2396705.m.jpg" class="bbCodeImage wysiwygImage" alt="" unselectable="on" /> </p><p><br /></p><p>Each of the dies used for this issue was created by a talented celator, but the state of the dies as the coins were being struck differs greatly. Was the obverse die engraved earlier, perhaps producing coins in another city before being paired with the well-preserved reverse die? Or maybe the obverse die was stored under adverse conditions, allowing it to rust and corrode before joining its relatively pristine mate. It might even have been a larger issue, with only coins struck with the damaged die surviving. As can be said of so many aspects of ancient coins, we will never know.</p><p><br /></p><p>Post your coins struck with dies which are mismatched relative to preservation or strike.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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